‘Manjummel Boys’ team interview: ‘The response has been overwhelming’

How was ‘Manjummel Boys’ shot? The team behind this superhit Malayalam film, which has made history at the box office, tells the secret.

Once upon a time, a man fell into a pit and his friends helped him get out.

This seemingly-simple storyline was the base around which recent Malayalam film Manjummel Boys revolved. But as with most of Malayalam cinema, which makes the ordinary charming and the everyday epic, Manjummel Boys too weaved in enough thrill and tension into its script, leading to much excitement in cinema halls.

In Tamil Nadu, where the film has been a blockbuster, a crucial sequence featuring Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi and the rest of the actors — peppered with a song from Kamal Haasan’s 1991 Tamil film Guna — met with rapturous applause, something largely reserved for the entry scenes of the superstar.

While the ‘Kanmani Anbodu’ melody made a comeback, Manjummel Boys made history, becoming the first Malayalam film to collect ₹200 crore at the global box office. The motley team behind this successful film discusses it all during a recent visit to The Hindu office in Chennai. Excerpts:

Chidambaram, Director

The response Manjummel Boys got from Tamil Nadu has been overwhelming; we were really not ready for this!

The writing process was tough; I had it in my mind that the film had to start with the Tamil song from Kamal Haasan’s Guna. For the climax, as the situation was claustrophobic, the melody would help calm things down. The lines perfectly fell in place; I think that it was made for me 30 years ago.